The Cardiff Book of Days (6 page)

1596:
Llandaff became a battleground between the followers of rival noble families who were conducting a long-running feud, the Herberts of Cardiff, with their allies the Lewises of Caerphilly, and the Mathew clan of Llandaff. The Lewis supporters paraded through the streets hurling insults at the Mathews' family retainers. They were routed and George Lewis fled for his life across Llandaff Bridge pursued by an armed mob. One man was left for dead and another, who tried to restore order, was assaulted with such violence that his shinbone was broken into slivers. (Dennis Morgan,
The Cardiff Story
, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

1983:
Legislation came into force requiring car drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat-belts. A survey by the
AA
found Cardiff drivers particularly lax about this. Only 64 per cent of their sample in Cardiff were obeying the new law, compared to an average for the UK of 90 per cent. A survey by pupils of Kenfig School near Bridgend revealed that only 40 per cent of drivers there wore belts before they became compulsory. (
South Wales Echo
)

1890:
Opening of Cardiff Coal Exchange – the scene of the first £1m trade deal in the world. Designed by architect Edwin Seward it reputedly cost £60,000. In 1911-12 the interior was expensively redesigned by Seward, with sculptures by Tom A. Jones. The doorway into the central hall was guarded by two mighty lions, bearing clocks which indicate the times of high water, morning and evening. (John Newman,
The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan
, Penguin, 1995)

1995:
Richey Edwards, rhythm guitarist and lyricist of rock band The Manic Street Preachers, disappeared on the day before he was due to fly out to the United States with the rest of the band for a promotional tour. He checked out of his hotel in Bayswater Road, London, and drove to his flat in Cardiff. There were unconfirmed sightings of him at Newport Bus Station and the nearby Passport Office but he was never seen again. It was subsequently established that he had withdrawn £200 from his bank account every day for the previous fortnight. Edwards, born at Blackwood on December 22nd 1967, had become known for his politically-committed and intellectual songwriting. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1595:
Two ruffians in the service of Sir William Herbert forcibly entered the house of a local vintner on the pretext of searching for traitors. The bailiffs arrived and arrested the two intruders and threw them in jail. William Herbert's son Nicholas then arrived with twenty armed men, occupied the Town Hall, beat up the bailiffs and released the prisoners. As Dennis Morgan writes in
The Cardiff Story
: ‘The Herberts' gang were now in what amounted to a military occupation of Cardiff, making the inhabitants' lives a misery for several days. However, the wronged townsmen and bailiffs complained to the Star Chamber in London and eventually this resulted in William and Nicholas languishing in the Fleet Prison before being freed on payment of 1,000 marks and £500 respectively.

1997:
Irish President Mary Robinson visited Cardiff. She watched Ireland beat Wales at the Millennium Stadium, attended Mass at St David's Cathedral and hosted a reception at Cardiff Castle. She thanked the people of Cardiff for welcoming refugees from the Potato Famine of the 1840s. (
Western Mail
)

1968:
Gareth Edwards captained Wales for the first time. Scotland were the opponents at the Arms Park. Steve Lewis in
The Priceless Craft: 125 years of Welsh Rugby Captains
describes how ‘a dreadful match saw Wales sneak a 5-0 victory thanks to a try scored after a blatant forward pass that went unnoticed by the referee.' It was not a particularly auspicious start but the Cardiff scrum-half became one of Wales' greatest players and captained them thirteen times between 1968 and 1974, including a 24-0 victory over Australia in November 1973. On January 27th 1973 Edwards, playing for the Barbarians against New Zealand, scored what is considered by many to have been the finest try ever. Starting almost under the Barbarians' posts, the ball was passed from Phil Bennett to J.P.R. Williams to John Pullin to John Dawes to Derek Quinnell and so to Edwards who intercepted Quinnell's intended pass to John Bevan. The final score was 23-11 to the Barbarians in, to quote Terry Breverton, ‘the days when rugby was amateur, understandable and entertaining'. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer,
The Wales Rugby Miscellany
, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)

1854:
Speaking at a meeting to consider the issue of delinquency, Town Clerk Edward Priest Roberts, who was also Lord Bute's agent, said that Cardiff must enter the national debate on the subject: ‘A smaller town should confine itself to local issues but Cardiff needs to stand in that position which our wealth, our population and, I may add, our intelligence entitle us.' (
Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian
)

1891:
The East Moors Steelworks was opened by the Dowlais Steel Company. The firm had begun in Merthyr Tydfil but, once local supplies of iron ore had been exhausted, it became necessary to import it, raising production costs there to an uneconomic level. It was decided to build a new works on the edge of Splott. The land was owned by Lord Bute who performed the opening ceremony. That evening a banquet was held at the Drill Hall in Dumfries Place but this event was marred by a fire caused by the new-fangled electric lights overheating! (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1958:
Wales made its only appearance in the football World Cup. They were lucky to qualify. The team failed to win its group but were given a second chance when the Arab nations refused to play Israel for political reasons. Football's governing body FIFA decided that Israel would have to play one of the seven runners-up from the qualifying groups and in the lottery which followed Wales was picked out. With a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Tel Aviv, Israel's uncompromising tackles did not win them many friends in the crowd and their keeper Chodoroff was instrumental in keeping the Welsh at bay. With twenty minutes to go he was injured in a collision with John Charles – breaking his nose, injuring his shoulder and suffering from concussion. There were no substitutes allowed then and he bravely carried on but Wales scored twice before the end. When taken to hospital afterwards, he spoke to the nurses in Hebrew, thinking he was back in Israel. In the final stages, held in Sweden, Wales drew all their group matches before losing to Brazil (the eventual winners) in the quarter-final. (Dennis Morgan,
Farewell to Ninian Park
, 2008)

1886:
The SS
Great Britain
left Penarth on what turned out to be her final voyage. By now her glory days were long behind. Her engines had been removed and she had been converted into a three-masted sailing ship for carrying coal from South Wales around Cape Horn to Valparaiso, Panama and San Francisco. South Atlantic storms forced her to seek shelter in the harbour at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where she was sold and used as a hulk for storing coal and wool. She remained there until 1970 when she was towed back to Bristol, arriving there on July 19th. (Stephen K. Jones,
Brunel in South Wales, Vol.3
, The History Press, 2009)

1932:
Cardiff City achieved their record win in the Football League, a 9-2 defeat of Thames FC in the Third Division South. Thames FC were a short-lived team whose home group was the West Ham Speedway Stadium (not the same ground as Upton Park, home of West Ham United). The club was disbanded at the end of the season. (Dennis Morgan,
Farewell to Ninian Park
, 2008)

1882:
‘Lord Bute's name appears among the signatories of the memorial remonstrating against any alteration in the law or usage tending to dispense with the recognition by Parliament of the supreme authority of God.' (
Western Mail
)